FOXBOROUGH – Drake Maye didn’t disappoint.
Everyone else wearing Patriots throwback colors – including the coaching staff – on Sunday afternoon did. That was Jerod Mayo’s take.
And he was pretty much spot on.
During his post-game remarks, the Patriots coach was more than a little frustrated over having the same problems pop up against the Houston Texans, sabotaging Maye’s effort. Whether it was committing too many penalties (nine), having a boatload of missed tackles, getting burnt by big plays, having receivers make critical drops, watching the quarterback deal with a lack of protection, it’s driving the Patriots coach slightly batty six games into the season.
Maye made the kind of plays that Mayo had hoped he’d make in wake of moving on from Jacoby Brissett, but it was far from being enough in the 41-21 loss to the Texans.
The Patriots are 1-5, have a rookie quarterback who while making some mistakes (three turnovers), energized a stagnant offense as well as a needy fan base. He showed the kind of promise that the franchise desperately needs. Maye’s three touchdown passes, however, weren’t close to being good enough.
And that’s both the immediate problem, and harsh reality for a Patriots team that desperately needed the shot in the arm Maye provided.
The defense was dreadful. And the offensive line still can’t block a lick. Maye was sacked three times, popped eight more times. In that way, it was very much the same as a battered Brissett faced week to week. Maye, however, was able to make a few more plays that either resulted in scores, or led to them.
“I thought he showed a lot of poise. I thought he went out there and controlled the huddle, got those guys out of the huddle and once again, made some plays. It’s definitely encouraging,” Mayo said of his rookie quarterback, who made his NFL debut. “From a team-wide perspective right now, we let him down. It was his first game, and I feel like I let him down. I’m sure all the coaches feel like we let everyone down. We’ve just got to be better.”
Asked to be more specific about what ways he felt Maye was let down “team-wide,” Mayo said: “Look, we feel like crap right now, and I would say just for a rookie quarterback to go out there and do some good things … I just felt like we could have did a better job supporting him.”
Whether it was the coaching staff not being able to stop players from making repeat mistakes; the defense giving up more big plays (”They should feel like crap”) or the four turnovers on offense (Maye accounted for three, Austin Hooper the other), it’s hard for a rookie to win with all of that going on.
Mayo, however, omitted another participant in the lack of support equation.
His comments didn’t include the front office, specifically de facto GM Eliot Wolf. Mayo didn’t go there, but Wolf also played a role in what played out.
While he can take credit for drafting Maye, Wolf’s inability to put together a more competent line and better supporting cast, putting his rookie in a better position to succeed, is the worst sin of all.
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Granted, injuries (center David Andrews done for the year) haven’t helped. But the fixes Wolf made during the offseason have done little to help the cause. Chuks Okorafor, who was signed as a free agent and the starting left tackle for Week 1, basically quit on the team. Caedan Wallace, a right tackle taken in the third round of the draft and expected to move to the left, is on IR.
The starting offensive line playing in front of Maye against the Texans?
Ben Brown, who got the start over Nick Leverett, was signed off the Vegas’ practice squad Thursday. He got in two practices before being thrust into the fire, in charge of calling out protections for the rookie quarterback.
Brown’s insertion created the sixth different starting offensive line in six weeks.
All told, the Patriots line featured one home grown draft pick (Michael Onwenu), one player who arrived via trade last year (Vederian Lowe), a former practice squad member (Michael Jordan) and two waiver wire claims who were both undrafted (Brown, Demontrey Jacobs).
Just as a comparison, Texans’ second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud, the second overall pick in 2023, has a line that features three first-round picks, a second-rounder, and fourth rounder.
No need to wonder why Maye was sacked four times, and walloped on eight other occasions. While Maye showed promise, that can only go so far with that kind of line.
“I thought the offensive line at times definitely had some good pockets to allow the quarterback to make those throws,” Mayo said. “But once again, it’s a team-wide sport, and we don’t feel very good about anything right now.”
As for the defense, injuries have hampered that unit. But there’s also a dearth of quality depth to make up for the losses. Plus, defense is supposed to be Mayo’s calling card. But that unit is making killer mistakes and allowing way too many big plays.
Defensive tackle Davon Godchaux was one of many in the Patriots locker room who came away impressed with Maye’s debut. Putting up 21 points is usually enough to get a win based on how the defense has performed in the past. That’s what was so bothersome to Mayo and the players.
“It’s missed tackles, blown assignments, being where you’re supposed to be,” Godchaux said. “It’s too much of not doing that. I could go on and on. It is what it is.”
He then added: “Forty-one points is embarrassing.”
Some of the blame for the Patriots having one of the worst rosters in the league goes back to the Bill Belichick regime, with his poor drafts in recent years, and bad roster management.
Granted, Wolf and Mayo are in the process of a rebuild. It’s going to take time to dig out of the hole Belichick left them in. But knowing they were going to take a quarterback in the draft – and third overall no less – more could have been done to support him. And that was clear to see Sunday in Maye’s debut.
It was evident how far away the Patriots are from having a roster like the Texans, with Nick Caserio methodically piecing together a contender. The former Patriots personnel head has done a great job surrounding Stroud and the Texans with game-changers on both sides of the ball.
So while Maye provides hope, getting more out of the receiving corps with Demario ‘Pop’ Douglas and Kayshon Boutte had career days, it wasn’t enough to overcome problems all around.
The Patriots still got blown out.
Yes, the team just became more fun and more watchable. But for now, no matter how well Maye plays, or how many wins he cobbles together this season, it won’t really matter until Wolf & Co. outfit him with a more competitive roster.
Getting blown out by the Texans was proof positive of that.
